


Ninja the Unintentional Matchmaker

by orangefriday



Series: Levi & Nico Tumblr Fics [4]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, vet tech!Levi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 04:52:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16716914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orangefriday/pseuds/orangefriday
Summary: In which Levi realizes he prefers dogs.





	Ninja the Unintentional Matchmaker

_“Ninja’s ready to go when you guys are done.”_

“Okay dokey,” Levi responds absentmindedly to the page. He’s awkwardly restraining a too tiny, shivering, black chihuahua as Taryn wipes her bottom with a flourish. Levi has to look away and hold in a gag as the wipe comes up stained with the yummy, gooey, brown leftovers of a fully expressed anal glad.

“Ugh, how does that much come out of something so little?” Levi grimaces as Taryn chucks the soiled gauze and gloves in the trash. He releases his hold and hugs the pup to his chest. The dog in question is still shivering and looking like she’s facing fear itself and not Taryn who’s making kissy faces at her. “What are they feeding you, huh? Too many cookies?”

The dog is pretty cute, he admits, even though Levi has only ever had cats at home. But he could definitely see the appeal of having a dog as a pet, even the nippy, yappy, minuscule ones.

It was a busy day at the veterinary hospital, like all days at the large practice. And just another normal day filled with an unfortunate number of anal glands that needed to be expressed (Too many, if you asked Levi. He wonders if there would ever be a day where he  _didn’t_  have to stick a finger up someone’s butt).

“All right, little girl, time to go see your mommy,” Levi says and can’t help using his baby voice. He didn’t even know he  _had_  a baby voice for anything until he started volunteering at his local shelter. There he learned to love all things that barked, meowed, and even the scaly ones. Being a vet tech was a dream come true but it didn’t come without its hiccups. The long hours, the fractious cats, and the crazy dogs (Levi once stupidly miscalculated the friendliness of a dog and almost lost a finger). But it all was worth it when a pet could go home happy and healthy to their owners.

“Where’s your mommy, Ninja? Hmm? Tell me who your mommy is!” Levi’s still talking to the Ninja in his ridiculous baby voice as he walks through the doors towards the reception area. It’s an action-packed scene with many clients and their respective pets waiting for their appointments or to pick up medications and food. The receptionists, ever the skilled multi-taskers, are also juggling ringing phone calls. Levi does  _not_  envy their jobs even though they get to sit all day. He’d rather be peed on by a cat and stand in surgery for 3 hours than to answer even one phone call from a demanding client.

Levi scans the crowd, expecting an overly worried lady with a big purse to come retrieve Ninja but he doesn’t see anyone matching that description. Instead, a tall man wearing a leather jacket with perfect hair and a mischievous smirk walks up to Levi.  

“Hey,” the man says. Levi looks up at him, suddenly noticing how just how tall he was and oh, he’s  _really_  good looking especially with that sharp jaw and his full rosy lips… Levi stops his thoughts there and closes his mouth. When was his mouth even open to begin with?

Levi clears his throat and responds with a raspy voice, “H-Hi.” And just what the hell was happening with his voice? He clears his throat  _again._ There must be some dog hair stuck in his throat or something.

Meanwhile, the other man is looking at Levi expectantly while Levi nervously looks past him at the waiting room for Ninja’s owner. He snaps out of it, ears suddenly really hot, and remembers he’s a  _tech_  working at  _this hospital_ , for god’s sake! What was wrong with him?!

“Oh uh, how can I help you?” Suddenly, Ninja starts squirming and yelping in Levi’s arms, losing her shit. He’s trying hard to keep a hold on her but her wiggly little body was proving to be too slippery. “A-ah, no, don’t do that, Ninja!”

“Here. Let me help you,” the man says and takes Ninja, scooping her up and into his arms. She instantly stills and licks at the big hands that were securely and expertly holding her.

It was quite a sight: a tiny little dog in the arms of a really…  _really_ … _tall_ …and big guy with really nice muscles… The way the man is smiling at Levi was making his palms sweaty.

Then, at that moment, when Levi stops wondering if the t-shirt the man in front of him was wearing was maybe too small for him since his pecs were really well outlined and emphasized… it  _clicks._

“O-oh! Is she your dog?”

“Yeah,” he says, still smiling that goddamn smile. Was the air conditioning even working?

“Oh god. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t expecting Ninja to be your dog — I mean, not that I was expecting someone else. Or that you can’t have a dog like her. Okay, sorry. I’ll stop now. There’s your dog.” Levi gestures to Ninja awkwardly and has to clasps his hands together to stop himself from blabbering. “She was terrific. We did her anal glands. All normal and - and -  _nice._ ”

_Nice? Anal glands aren’t_ nice! Levi thinks and outwardly winces, knowing he’s made a perfect fool of himself. He only hopes this guy will be too busy with doing whatever good looking guys do to remember this super awkward encounter with the super weird tech from the back.

But the whole time, the other man is looking at Levi with the same amused soft smile on his face.

“I’m Nico,” he says surprisingly and holds out his free hand for Levi to shake.  _Nico_ , Levi thinks, saying the name in his head over and over again. Now Ninja’s looking at Levi too. Remembering social cues that should probably be followed to evade awkward encounters (not like this wasn’t an incredibly large one already), Levi quickly takes Nico’s hand in his, a jolt of excitement travels from his feet and pools hot at the base of his neck. He’s shaking Nico’s hand a little  _too_ enthusiastically. But Nico seems to return the gesture by slowing Levi down, moving closer towards the vet tech. He’s close enough now that Levi smells the sweet, sugary mint of Nico’s breath and thinks Nico’s collarbone looks quite…  _nice_.

“Levi,” he manages to croak out. His hand is  _still_  in Nico’s strong one. “My name’s Levi.”

“Hi Levi.” The way Nico says his name is heavy and deep and Levi almost shivers, wanting to shy away from Nico’s gaze but not being able to look away from the other’s dark, intriguing eyes.

“Hi,” Levi finds himself whispering, breathlessly.

Then, in that moment, Ninja barks,  _Loud_. And Levi takes his hand back from Nico’s grip. His fingertips tingle with lost energy.

He gulps and coughs, for lack of a better thing to do. “Um yeah, sorry again. For, uh, the misunderstanding.”

Nico laughs and shakes his head. He puts a heavy hand on Levi’s shoulder. If Levi’s neck could get any hotter, it did now, especially with the spot that Nico’s thumb had (maybe, probably purposely) touched.

“Hey, no worries, dude. Besides,” he starts, and leans in even closer towards Levi, “I wasn’t expecting to see a cute tech like you with my dog either.” And Nico  _winks_  and Levi is absolutely  _stunned_. He  _definitely_  thinks someone needs to come in and fix the air conditioning because it’s  _November_ and Levi’s just standing here, in front of this gorgeous man that just said he was  _cute_ and he’s  _sweating_. He’s completely and utterly  _hot_  in all the wrong places and very, very,  _very_ dizzy. His scrubs feel too tight all of a sudden. Levi makes a noise and it’s not a noise he can define and probably not a good sounding one from the looks of it.

And Levi almost doesn’t hear what Nico says next with the incredibly loud thumping in his ears. “But you can make it up to me coming with me for drinks. Tonight? There’s a bar two blocks down called Joe’s.”

Levi opens and closes his mouth a few times. His mind is  _swimming -_ no,  _dancing_  - with all the thoughts and ideas that may or may not entail Nico and him in different and  _interesting_ situations. Levi doesn’t realize he’s nodding or saying the words, “Yeah, sure, cool, cool,” until Nico’s walking out the door with Ninja in his arms but not without turning back to give Levi a smile and a ever-so-suave wave.

“Holy shit,” Taryn’s voice behind him violently pulls Levi out of an image he had of Nico and him in a bar, together,  _alone._  “You just got asked out, by  _him._ ”

“What? N-no, he didn’t.” Levi scoffs. “I just owe him a drink.”

Taryn rolls her eyes at Levi. She always makes it seem like he is so  _obviously_  dense. “Wipe the drool off your face, Glasses. He asked you out. Now get back in here. I need help with cleaning a dirty vagina.”

Levi groans but he’s smiling like a crazy person for the rest his shift.

**Author's Note:**

> send me fic prompts at [@glassesandkim](http://glassesandkim.tumblr.com)!


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